Treasurer admits lack of Indigenous staff unacceptable

Just one Indigenous person works at Victoria's treasury department as the state government weighs up budgeting measures focused on First Peoples.

Treasurer Tim Pallas revealed the employment figure on Wednesday, which truth telling inquiry commissioners decried as inadequate in 2024.

The number was down from three people in recent years, from a staff of almost 650.

"All I can say, having spoken to the secretary of the department about my concerns about the numbers (is that) he shares those concerns," Mr Pallas told the Yoorrook Justice Commission.

"There will be, I'm sure, an effort from (the Department of Treasury and Finance) to try and rectify what I think is an unacceptably low level of representation.

"It may be that a responsive budgeting regime that focuses on First Nations as a key obligation of government ... may well provide us with that focus and resource."

The treasurer flagged the conscious effort to improve women's representation in Victorian government as one area where the state got it right.

That progress highlighted the unacceptable inadequacy of First Peoples' representation in his central agency, Mr Pallas said.

He flagged the government could ultimately consider adopting a model like gender responsive budgeting for First Nations people - but he wanted to make sure the gender legislative was effective first.

"That sort of trajectory makes sense, that government would look at how do we, first, resource it in an administrative sense, what are the outcomes that we're looking to get, what is the advice we're looking to get," Mr Pallas said.

"Then, look at the journey that gender responsive budgeting has been on ... and how translatable would that legislation be in terms of First Peoples."

Commissioner Eleanor Bourke says Indigenous people still face racism, injustice and disadvantage. (Con Chronis/AAP PHOTOS)

Gender responsive budgeting forced the government to consider how budget measures affected women.

The treasurer did not offer a concrete timeline for if or when the government would consider responsive budgeting focused on Indigenous people.

Treasury needed to improve the way it dealt with rights holders directly, Mr Pallas said.

Yoorrook chair Eleanor Bourke earlier marked Wednesday as the last day of social justice hearings for the truth telling inquiry and said commissioners heard a total of 16 formal apologies from the Victorian government throughout the process.

"This is the beginning, not the end," Professor Bourke said.

"Too often in the past, we see apologies create headlines, not change. Even worse, they create the illusion of change while maintaining the status quo.

"I remind Victorians that the status quo for First Peoples is a world in which our people face racism, continuing injustice and disadvantage at far greater rates than non-Indigenous people."

Yoorrook - Australia's first truth telling inquiry and part of Victoria's treaty process - will hold further hearings later in the year and accept submissions until November.